Island



(No Model.)

B. A. BRIGHT.

FILLER MATERIAL FOR CIGARS.

No. 398,877. Patented Mar. 5, 1889.

UNTTE STATES PATENT OEETCE.

RICHARD BRIGHT, OF PROVIDENCE, RIIODE ISLAND, ASSIGNOR TO IVAIJTER A. PEC-K, TRUSTEE, OI? SAME PLACE.

FILLER MATERIAL FOR CIGARS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 398,877, dated March 5, 1889.

A li ti fil d August 18, 1888. Serial No. 283,134. (No model) To aZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, RICHARD .A. lhnon'r, a citizen of the United States, and a rcsidentol' Providence, in the State oi Rhode Island, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Filler Material for Cigars. oi which thcfollowing is a specification.

Cigars, as is well. known, are tapered more or less at the point end, the amount and character of such taper varying according to the I style of the cigar. in some cigars the taper of the point is short and abrupt.

cigars, made more or less tapering, and the 1 amount of this taper at the tuck end also varies in different styles of cigars. Thus the cigar is oi the largest diameter at the middle or body section and of less diameter along the point and tuck sections, the diameter oi these portions gradually lessening, according to the predetermined taperor form to be given to the point and tuck of the cigar, respectively. tobacco measuring transversely is required to properly form the body-section of the cigar and a less quantity to form the tapered ends.

Heretofore in the manufacture of longfiller cigars the method employed for furnishing the required amounts of tobacco and for producing the diit'crent diameters at the several sections of the bunch to secure the formation of the proper taper at the point and tuck ends of the cigar has been to build up the bunch at the body-section with short pieces, the uni-' form practice bcin g to arrange the fillerleaves or cuttings in. the hand in about the quantity required for a single cigar, and then to break i off the projecting ends of the leaves and place them in the middle of the bunch, and thus furnish that part of the bunch which is to form the body of the cigar with a greater quantity of tobacco than there is at the ends,

the amount and character of this building up depending upon the style of the cigar to be made. By this method the proper formation of the bunch of fillers and the quantity of in others such taper gradual and extends back a conj Consequently a greater quantity of I tobacco to be obtained in the several sections thereof depended solely upon the feel or touch oi the maker, and to properly gage the rcquircd amounts of tobacco at the different 5 portions of the bunch to enable a cigar having the desired tapering point and tuck to be made therefrom, and especially to sccurcunit'ormity in the formation of successive bunches, so that the cigars made therefrom would correspond in shape and style, great skill and long practice were required. Furthernnn'e, by this method each bunch ol fillers requires to be separately [)lTI'lzllQd and i gagml not only at its middle, but at its ends,

{and it has been impossible to prepare the fillers in quantity. Even when it has been attempted to make long-filler cigars by mach-inery it has been necessary to practically gage thc fillers bunch by bunch preparatory to inserting into the machine by building up l the middle of each bunch the same as when the bunches were to be made into cigars by hand, and the time required for the operator 3 to thus prepare and gage the bunches has heretofore prevented the manufacture of longfiller cigars wit-h profit by machinery.

The object of my invention is to provide cigar-fillers so prepared that in the formation oi. bunches therefrom for the manufacture of cigars said bunches can be made to contain the required amount of tobacco at the several sections of the bunch with the exercise of much less skill on the part of the maker and in much less time than heretofore; and my gars, in which the fillcr-leaves have been prepared by cutting out or removing a portion of the'tobacco at the end of the same, so that as the result there will be a less quantity of tobacco at those portions of the fillers which are to form the tapering end of the cigar than at those portions which are to form the body of the cigar, and by properly varying and proportioning the amount of tobacco cut out or removed to that which is retained the fillers may be so prepared as to be adapted to form cigars of any desired shape or contour.

Figure l is a top view of a layer of cigarfillers, showing the primary parallel arrangement of the cuttings or filler-leaves and the line of the cut to be made for removing the surplus tobacco from the end of the fillers. Fig. 2 represent a top view of a layer of prepared fillers, the surplus tobacco having been removed from the ends of the fillers.

In the accompanying drawings, A, Fig. 1, represents the top of a layer of cuttings or fillers, such as are usually employed for making long-filler cigars, the said fillers being arranged approximately parallel with each other in any convenient quantity. To prepare the fillers so arranged for the formation of the tapering point of the cigars to be made therefrom, a cut, as shown by the zigzag line a, is made at or near the edge of the layer A, the purpose of such out being to remove a proportionate quantity of the tobacco at that portion of the cigar-fillers which are to form the point end of the cigar. This cutis preferably made of tapering or zigzag form, as shown, so that a greater quantity of tobacco will be remoy'ed at the extreme ends of the finished fillers than farther in toward the center of the layer, so that as the result of the out there will be the least tobacco left at the extreme end of the fillers, the amount of tobacco left gradually increasing toward the center of the layer, whereby the fillers will be better adapted for forming the tapering point of the cigars, as will be readily understood from the drawings, and it will be seen that by properly regulating the amount and depth of the cut made the fillers may be prepared so as to provide for the formation therefrom of cigars with any desired form or amount of taper at the point.

If it be desired to prepare the fillers for cigars which are to have tapering tucks as well as tapering points, a similar cut, as shown by the zigzag line b, may be made to remove the required amount of tobacco at the opposite end of the fillers. The layer of fillers after both cuts have been made and the surplus tobacco removed is shown in Fig. 2, which represents the fillers B prepared for the formation of cigars with both tapering points and tapering tucks, the fillers as represented being substantially the length of a cigar.

To make cigarsby hand from these preparedfillers, the workman has only to take from the layer a quantity of fillers sufficient to form a bunch of the proper size at the bodysection, or place of greatest diameter, and to properly gage the size of the bunch at the body-section by reason of the fact that the proper proportions of tobacco have been pre viously removed at the end of the fillers, and a cigar of the proper form and taper can be immediately made from such fillers without the necessity of building up the middle or of gaging the form or diameter of the point and tuck ends of the cigar. It is evident that by the use of such prepared fillers much less skill will be required to properly form a cigar therefrom, and consequently a cheaper grade of help can be employed to advantage.

The primary arrangement of the fillers in parallel position being a very simple matter, and as by the employment of a properlyformed cutter the required cuts can be speedily made, the cost of manufacturing longfiller cigars by hand can be very much reduced, and at the same time much greater uniformity can be secured.

Fillers prepared as above described are also especially adapted to be fed automatically to a cigar-bunch machine, and, inasmuch as the fillers can be so prepared at a small fraction of the cost of arranging fillers to be fed into a machine by the methods heretofore em ployed, the use of such tapered fillers makes possible the profitable manufacture of long filler cigars by machinery.

I do not in this application claim the method of preparing filler material for the manufacture of cigars as herein described, the same having been described and claimed by me in my pending application, Serial No. 275,847.

I claim as my invention A prepared mass of cigar-fillers having a portion of the tobacco cut out or removed at the edge of the mass, so that a quantity taken from any portion of said mass will contain the proper proportion of tobacco in its diiferent parts to form cigars of the required shape or taper.

V RICHARD A. BRIGHT. \Vitn esses:

SOORATES ScHoLFIELD,

JOHN S. LYNCH. 

